Improvement in registers for electric fire-alarms



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J. BUSHA. REGISTERS FOR ELECTRIC FIRE ALARMS.

Patented July 11. 1876.-

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J; BUSHA. REGISTERS FOR ELECTRIC FIRE ALARMS.

Patented July 11, 1876.

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UNITE STATES JOSEPH BU SHA, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO MARGARET PATENT OFFIGE.

' H. BUSHA, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN REGISTERS FOR ELECTRIC FIRE-ALARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 179,767, dated July 11, 1576; application filed April 23, 1875.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, J OSEPH BUSHA, of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Registers for Electrical Fire Alarms and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification. 1

The object of my invention is to so apply a device to the ordinary electrical fire alarm bell or gong in a fire-engine house, or elsewhere, that whatever number is turned in to firemen immediatelyto ascertain with certainty what number was struck in case they should be asleep, or fail to hear it, or fail to count it correctly as it comes in, or if they be not present at such time.

The invention consists in the construction and combination of parts whereby the alarm is registered automatically, as hereafter more specifically set forth in the claims.

Figure 1 represents a view, in perspective, of my fire-alarm register as set for operation; Fig. 2, an elevation with the parts in position for registering the alarm as it is given; and Fig. 3 a detail of the pencil-carrier and slate, or paper strip.

The various parts of my apparatus are situated upon a suitable support in a fire-engine house, and, therefore, A indicates such support upon the inside of a building. A gong, B, or bell, and a pivoted hammer or tongue, (hare arranged in the usual manner to cause it to strike the number of the fire box, or an alarm of fire, by means of the electrical current passing through the connecting-wires. To this hammer is pivoted one end of a bar, D, at 0, and in the opposite end the bar has a long slot, (1, through which a wrist pin, e, upon the upper end of a lever, E, passes and operates to register the alarm, as will be hereinafter stated.

The vertical lever E is pivoted at fto a suitable bracket, and attached to this bracket F is a stop-guide, f, having its ends bent to form stops to limit and control the vibrations of the lever E, and thus the stroke of the registering-pencil. Secured horizontally to the lower end of lever E, in an opening in the latter, is a short tube or case, G, in which a slate or other pencil, g, is held with its point projecting upon the rear side, and it is forced forward by aspiral spring, 9 situated in the case against the pencil. The tension of the spring is controlled by the thumb-screw g in the outer end of the case.

Two parallel vertical guide rods, H H, are suitably secured at a proper distance from the support A by brackets it. They are also held sufficiently far apart to accommodate a slate, I, between them in its upward and downward movements, the rods serving as guides or ways to insure the vertical movement of the slate. Suitable open guidesi are attached to each corner of the slate and embrace the guiderods. Encircling the upper ends of these rods are spiral springs j, which, when the slate is drawn up, serve to start the latter in its descent when the cord 1) is unwound or released, as hereinafter described.

To the lower end of the slate a weight, J, is attached for drawing the same downward, and may be lighter or heavier, as desired, by taking out or putting into it shot; and to the upper end of the slate the cord'b is attached, which is passed over a pulley, 7t, situated over the slate, and thence runs horizontally to a pulley, 7c, and over it to a clock-winding mechanism. An ordinary clock or weight winding mechanism, L, which it is unnecessary to describe in detail, has the usual drum, around which the cord 0 is wound in elevating the slate I by placing a key upon the square end I of the drum-shaft, and turning it.

The frame that contains the winding mechanism has upon its outer upper cornera short shaft, (1, and upon this a long pendent clutchbar, N, is loosely hung, the shaft a passing through along slot, n, in this lever.

Upon the side of the bar N is a square notch or clutch, 0, which can be made to receive the square-ended shaft l when the former is raised, which is permitted by the slot n, and turned to the right, thus grasping and holding the winding-drum from turning. A circular notch, 0, is made in bar N to permit the shaft l to turn without striking the bar when the clutch is off and the bar dropped down; and it will be perceived from the foregoing that were it not that the bar N has to be raised and adjusted vertically, inorder to place the clutch upon the square shaft l, the clutch would be liable to accidentally grasp the shaft when the bar is dropped down, and thus interfere with the gradual descent of the slate.

Pivoted to the supportA is an upright lever, P, in a'p'osition to receive the back stroke of the hammer, and having a laterally-extending arm,p, and when the lever is in its normal position it rests against a rod, g, which, with another, 1", serves to limit the vibrations of the hammer 0.

My registering device is set for action as follows: The slate is elevated by turning the key upon the shaft 1, which winds the cord b.

The clutch-bar N, with its notch o, is placed upon the square shaft l, to hold the slate from descending by means of its weight J and springs j. The lower end of the hammer is thrown to the right, where it rests against the gong, which is the normal position of the hammer. The Wrist-pin e of the pivoted lever E will then be at the inner end of slot d, and the pencil g forced against the slate by the spring in the case over it, and the lever P will be resting against rod q in position to re ceive the back stroke of the hammer.

The alarm is received and recorded as follows The alarm being struck, say, from box 53, the first movement of the hammer is to the left, leaving the gong, the long slot (1 in bar D permitting this to take place without operating the pencil,when the said-hammer comes in contact with the armsp of the lever I, giving it apercussive blow, which throws lever P to the left and its arm 19 against the lower end of clutch-bar N, which throws the clutch off from shaft 1, and, consequently, the slate commences to descend slowly and regularly. The latter part of this stroke of this hammer brings the pencil on the slate to its normal position for marking. Now, the slate having been set in motion, and descending, the hammer returns to strike the gong, which forces bar D to the right, and, in turn, the upper end of lever E, which causes the pencil to make a horizontal mark upon the slate from right to left, marking 1. The slate continues to descend, aud the hammer is made to leave the gong again, which returns the pencil, as before, and the gong is struck again, the pencil marking as before, but a little above the first mark. Thus the marks are made, as above shown in the drawing, at regular intervals apart, until, say, the fifth of the fifty tens is recorded, when the hammer pauses before striking the three, or the units, which causes the pencil, in its normal position, to draw a straight vertical line upon the slate, leaving a longer interval or space, when the hammer strikes again and registers three marks, as before, the spaces thus indicating the points between units, tens, or hundreds, and the marks, counting from the bottom of the slate upward, the numbers of each of these units, tens, or hundreds.

This principal is applicable to all numbers. After the alarm has been registered, the apparatus is reset, as before stated. In order that this gong may be struck by the hammer at 12 oclock or other hour without operating the registering mechanism, a pin, R, held by a chain, S, is placed in the hole 8 in front of lever P, which prevents the latter from being thrown against the bar N, and hence arrests the connection of it with the bar and the starting of the slate.

A distinguishing feature in carrying out my invention of the combination of the alarm and and registering device lies in the capacity of the registering device to perform its function of recording the blow of the hammer at the instant it is made, and, by means of the movement of the hammer, to strike the alarm, and in effecting this action any suitable equivalents may be employed for the slotted arm and the pivoted lever which forms the operatin g connection between the hammer and the registering device.

It takes the hammer of the gong about one second and a half to strike a blow, and the pencil marks both ways with the stroke of the hammer, as illustrated in the diagram,

Fig. 4, Sheet 1,whieh shows the record of two alarms or box numbers, and in which it will be seen that the first mark of each alarm on the slate is nearly straight, but after the slate starts to running all the marks will be of a close V form. The travel of the slate is about six inches to the minute, and when the gong strikes for fire, say for box 54, there is only about three seconds and a half between blows, and the pause will be about twelve seconds. For box 18 there will be a pause of about eighteen seconds.

This register will show any mistakes from the central station that the operator has made, and if the repeater at the central station does not start right the slate will show it.

Firemen often have trouble in counting the number of blows struck, and sometimes different boxes arestruck for one alarm, as, for instance, 42, 57, and 67. In such cases the firemen cannot convince the foreman that he sent out these three separate boxes, but the register shows the fact, and thus the foreman is compelled to be more careful, as he cannot contradict the register. The register Works equally well with paper and a lead-pencil.

A very useful advantage of the register is that, the alarm being answered whether there is a fire or not, if the chief sends in his signal of one blow that the fire is all out before the return of the firemen, the slate shows the signal is in The numbers on the slate, when the alarm is striking, are about a half-inch apart, and they are made without the least interference with the movement of the hammer by means of the slot in the bar which connects the hammer with the pencil-carrier.

' The following is claimed as new in my firealarm register, namely:

1. The combination of the hammer of the gong, of the bar D, having a slot, d,wrist-pin e, lever E, and the pencil with the moving slate, as described.

2. The combination, with the hammer of a gong, of the bar D, slot cl, pin 0, lever E, and the pencil of the slate I, cord 1), and winding mechanism'L, as set forth.

3. The winding mechanism L, in combination with the-bar N, having a clutch, 0, the

automatically by the stroke of the ham mcr.

6. The combination, with the bar D, the pivoted lever E, and the pencil which it carries, of the stops f f, whereby to limit the registering stroke of the pencil, as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have affixed my signature in presenoe oftwo witnesses.

JOSEPH BUSHA. Witnesses:

J AS. J. LARKIN, WALTER P. HANSELL. 

